When you land

Two settings, both on the travel line. Turn data roaming on for it — a travel eSIM is always roaming, so this is what lets it use a local network. Then set mobile data to the travel line.

Leave your own line switched on if you want calls and texts on your own number, and turn data roaming off for that line so your carrier is not carrying data.

Give it a minute or two to find a network. If nothing happens, turn flight mode on and off.

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Data roaming first. On an iPhone: Settings → Cellular → the travel line → Data Roaming on. On Android it sits under the SIM’s own settings. Without it a travel eSIM cannot use any network.

Then check that mobile data is set to the travel line rather than your home line, and that the travel line is switched on.

Then turn flight mode on and off, which makes the phone search again. Wait up to two minutes.

If all three are right and there is still nothing, pick a network by hand. If that fails too, write to us while you are still travelling.

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Wait up to two minutes. A new line looks for a network from scratch and that takes longer than a phone you have used here before.

Then turn flight mode on and off. That is the quickest way to make the phone start the search again.

If it is still empty, turn automatic network selection off and choose a network by hand.

Check the obvious one too: the travel line has to be switched on, with data roaming on for it.

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A travel eSIM is always roaming, by definition: it is a foreign line using a local network. Data roaming has to be on for it or nothing works.

iPhone: Settings → Cellular → tap the travel line → Data Roaming on.

Android: Settings → Network & internet → SIMs → tap the travel eSIM → Roaming on.

Your home line is the opposite case. Leave data roaming off there, so your own carrier is not selling you data you have already bought.

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The travel eSIM. On an iPhone: Settings → Cellular → Cellular Data → choose the travel line. On Android the same choice is under the SIMs screen, as the mobile data preference.

This is the setting that stops your home carrier billing you for roaming. Everything else can be right and this one wrong, and you will still get a bill.

Leave your home line switched on if you want calls and texts on your own number. It should not be the one carrying data.

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Set mobile data to the travel line, and turn data roaming off for your home line. Those two together mean your carrier is not carrying any data for you.

Keep your home line switched on if you want to stay reachable. Incoming calls and texts still arrive, at your carrier’s rates.

If you want nothing at all from your carrier, switch that line off entirely. Your number is then unreachable until you switch it back on.

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iPhone: Settings → Cellular → the travel line → Network Selection → turn Automatic off, then pick a network from the list.

Android: the SIM’s settings hold the same choice, usually as "Choose network automatically" with a list underneath.

Try the operators your plan lists for that destination. The plan page names the networks it uses where the network publishes them.

Switch Automatic back on when you move to another city or another country, or the phone will keep hunting for a network that is not there.

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On an unlimited plan, the usual reason is the daily full-speed amount. Once a day passes it, the connection carries on at the slower speed printed on that plan until the next day begins, when full speed returns.

The other reasons are local: coverage where you are standing, the time of day, and how busy the network is. We buy access to local networks and cannot make them faster than they are.

Check which network the phone is on, and try picking another by hand. A different operator in the same place can be a different experience.

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Not on the travel eSIM. It is mobile data only: no phone number, no calls, no SMS.

Calls and texts over the internet work normally — WhatsApp, Telegram, FaceTime, Signal and the rest all run on data.

For calls on your own number, keep your own line switched on. Those are charged by your carrier.

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Yes, as long as your own line is switched on. The travel eSIM is a second line and does not replace it.

Incoming calls and texts on your number are charged by your own carrier at their roaming rates, which have nothing to do with us.

Your number can only carry calls, not data, if you have turned data roaming off for it — which is what you want.

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Yes. Everything that runs over the internet runs over the travel eSIM, exactly as it does on wifi.

iMessage and WhatsApp are tied to your own number, not to the travel line, so they keep working as long as that number is still registered on your phone.

SMS is the exception. The travel eSIM has no number, so a text message that has to arrive as an SMS needs your own line switched on — worth remembering for bank codes.

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Usually, yes. Two different things are involved: the text messages that bring your security codes, and the bank app itself.

Codes sent by text go to your own number, on your own SIM. Keep that line switched on in your phone's settings while the travel eSIM carries the data, and the codes keep arriving. Your home carrier may charge for texts received abroad — its roaming terms say.

The app sees the country your connection appears to come from — the IP location, which each plan names where the network states it. Some banks question or block a login from a country they do not expect.

Where it matters, tell your bank before you travel, or choose a plan whose IP location suits your bank: "Choose your IP" lists the IP locations a destination is sold with.

How a bank reacts is its own security decision, so we cannot promise it. If the app still refuses, the bank's support line can usually unlock it, and a call to your own number still reaches you.

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They connect as on any mobile line. What can differ is what a service shows you, because many decide by the IP location — the country your connection appears to come from, which each plan names where the network states it.

Streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube show the catalogue of that country, so some titles can be missing or different.

Some services treat certain IP locations differently. Hong Kong is the best-known case: some apps and AI services limit or change what they offer there. Where a destination is sold with more than one IP location, "Choose your IP" lets you pick another.

In mainland China, travel eSIMs connect through another country, so services blocked inside China, such as Google, WhatsApp and Instagram, usually open as they do there. That is how roaming works, not a VPN, and we cannot promise it for every service.

Speed matters too. After the daily full-speed amount, video plays at the plan's continued speed — the answer on 512 kbps, 1 Mbps and 5 Mbps says what each allows.

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Yes. Personal hotspot works on almost every plan we sell, so your laptop, tablet or a second phone can go online through this eSIM. Each plan’s details say it: a few plans have none, and on a few the network has not confirmed it.

Whatever they use counts toward the same data as your phone. On an unlimited plan, the full-speed data for the day comes first; after it, the plan keeps going at the speed it states.

Several devices connected at once divide the speed between them.

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Your order page shows what the network has reported: how much of the plan has been used, and out of what.

Your phone’s own counter is the live one. iPhone: Settings → Cellular → the travel line. Android: the SIM’s data usage screen.

On an unlimited plan the number that decides your speed is the amount used today, not the total. Full speed returns at the start of each new day.

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The figure we show comes from the network, and networks report late — sometimes by hours. A quiet morning can look like a quiet week.

Your phone’s own counter updates immediately, so use that when you need to know what is happening right now.

If the two disagree by a large margin after a day has passed, send us the order number and what each one says.

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No, and while the plan is still running you should not. A deleted eSIM cannot be brought back and what is left on it is gone.

Once the plan has ended the line is harmless. You can switch it off and leave it, or remove it if you want the space.

What you should do on the way home is set mobile data back to your own line.

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The eSIM cannot be moved to another phone, so the plan on the lost phone cannot be recovered. Tell your own carrier about your own SIM, which is the line with your number on it.

A plan that was already installed is not refundable, so a replacement plan on a new phone is a new purchase.

Write to us with the order number anyway. If any part of the order had not been installed, we can still deal with that part.

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